Blast at Coal Plant Injures 1, Damages Cascade Building

09/12/2013 | POWERnews

An explosion on Tuesday morning at CPS Energy’s 420-MW Deely 1 power plant that left one worker with minor injuries has damaged the coal-fired unit’s cascade building, the San Antonio municipal utility said.

The blast that occurred shortly before 11 a.m. at a 7,500-acre site in southeast Bexar County prompted officials to evacuate the building and ensure all employees were accounted for and safe. The utility tweeted that the explosion would not affect customers’ power supply nor was it a concern for nearby residents. “It was pretty minor, thankfully. Under investigation,” @cpsenergy tweeted again later.

An initial investigation shows the cascade building—which feeds coal into silos before it is moved to the plant—was damaged. “The plant’s fire suppression system deployed, working as the safety system should. The plant was online at the time of the explosion, and operators are in the process of taking the plant offline for safety reasons and to investigate further,” CPS Energy said in a statement on Tuesday. Deely 2 remains in operation.

The utility scrapped plans to install new scrubbers and opted instead to shutter the Deely units by 2018 as part of diversification efforts announced two years ago to increase generation from natural gas and renewables.